Chaos and Creation at Abbey Road • Thursday, July 28, 2005

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From Wikipedia:

Chaos and Creation at Abbey Road, recorded on 28 July 2005, was a live concert given by Paul McCartney at Abbey Road Studios, specifically Studio 2, where many of The Beatles’ recordings were made.

Chaos and Creation at Abbey Road was meant as a promotion for McCartney’s album Chaos and Creation in the Backyard. As the audience was of close friends and selected fans, the concert was intimate in nature and was littered with monologues and song fragments. It was shown on BBC Two in the United Kingdom on 17 December 2005, and on PBS in the United States on 27 February 2006.

McCartney plays left-handed and right-handed guitars, drums, harmonium, double bass, Mellotron, and even wine glasses in a reworking of Wings song “Band on the Run“. He also reworks the Beatles’ track “Lady Madonna“, which he calls “Old Lady in New Clothes“, with a much slower tempo and swung melody line.

The bass McCartney uses on his performance of “Heartbreak Hotel” once belonged to Bill Black, Elvis Presley’s bass player who died in 1965.

From simonhilton.tv:

With Nigel Godrich, producer of his latest album, offering assistance, McCartney runs casually and charmingly through a set list that includes four songs from the new CD, several reworked old favorites, and some surprises – both very old and impressively new. “Friends to Go,” “How Kind of You,” “English Tea” and “Jenny Wren” are the selections from “Backyard.” In his introduction to “Jenny Wren,” McCartney makes a musical connection to “Blackbird,” then plays it – along with the pre-Ringo Starr Beatles composition “In Spite of All the Danger,” and versions of two rethought Beatles classics.

“Lady Madonna,” with McCartney on piano, is reinvented in a much slower tempo, the same way Eric Clapton transformed “Layla” on “Unplugged.” In the same way, “I’ve Got a Feeling,” stripped of all instrumentation but one acoustic guitar (and stripped, as well, of John Lennon’s tight harmonies and shouting rejoinders) becomes almost a new song. The sense that this “Great Performances” special truly is special kicks in after the first two songs. McCartney, explaining his fondness for the quaint four-track machines at Abbey Road, offers an on-site demonstration. Like Mr. Wizard doing an experiment for eager students, McCartney uses the tape deck’s first track to record the sound as he wets the rim of a partly filled crystal glass. Track two is another glass, filled to a different pitch. On track three, McCartney squeezes a lingering tone out of a Mellotron.

Each time a track is added, we hear the combined effect. And on track four, to complete the experiment, he begins singing – and the wine-glass-and-harmonium backing suddenly becomes the perfect accompaniment for “Band on the Run,” one of his hits with Wings.

McCartney closes the show with another experiment, this time using a computer program and Godrich to record and loop a song made up on the spot. McCartney starts with the barest of bones: him pounding on drums, and an audience encouraged to clap in time (otherwise, they’re blessedly silent during the songs themselves, as much a throwback to another time as the mellotron McCartney plays). Then comes bass, piano, two guitar tracks – and then McCartney steps to the mike, to make up lyrics on the spot.

They’re not great lyrics (“That’s all for now“), but it is great fun. So is McCartney pulling out the upright bass played by Bill Black, Elvis Presley’s bass player, for a solo version of “Heartbreak Hotel.” The film “Let It Be” captured McCartney and company at Abbey Road at their most fractious, but tonight’s special presents him, alone, blessedly at ease.

From paulmccartney.com, January 25, 2006:

An Intimate Concert Exclusive For Thirteen/WNET New York’s GREAT PERFORMANCES on PBS Paul McCartney’s 20th studio album, Chaos and Creation in the Backyard, received four Grammy Award nominations earlier this year and widespread critical praise from critics upon its release last year. It’s been called one of his best solo works ever, an album of songs that critics have compared to many of the Beatles classics that made McCartney one of the greatest songwriters of our time. Now, Thirteen/WNET New York’s GREAT PERFORMANCES is set to premiere a rare concert event; a listen to some of the new songs, and some of the old, as McCartney returns to his ‘creative backyard,’ Abbey Road, with Paul McCartney: Chaos and Creation at Abbey Road, an intimate, concert exclusive. Premiering Monday, February 27 at 10 p.m. (ET) on GREAT PERFORMANCES (check local listings), the intimate, one-hour special finds the legendary singer-songwriter back at Abbey Road’s Studio 2, the cavernous room where Chaos and many of the Beatles’ most famous records were made. Performing solo before a small group of fans and friends, McCartney offers songs and reminiscences about the Beatles’ years, selections from his recent Grammy-nominated Album of the Year, Chaos and Creation in the Backyard, and a fascinating look at how various musical effects were achieved in both the early Beatles albums and on Chaos.

Viewers are treated to a virtual one-man McCartney band, as he plays right and left-handed guitars, drums, harmonium, bass, Mellotron, and even wine goblets. Fans will particularly enjoy the stories and the performances, which include McCartney’s rendition of one of the first song’s ever recorded by the Beatles, ‘In Spite of All the Danger,’ as well as Beatles classics ‘Blackbird’ ‘Lady Madonna,’ and ‘I’ve Got a Feeling,’ Wings’ ‘Band on the Run’ and new songs from Chaos And Creation In The Backyard, ‘Jenny Wren,’ ‘English Tea,’ ‘How Kind Of You,’ and ‘Friends to Go.’ Other selections include Eddie Cochran’s ‘Twenty Flight Rock,’ McCartney’s audition piece that ‘apparently got me in the Beatles,’ ‘Heartbreak Hotel,’ featuring Paul on bass and a special Jamming Track Finale, that somehow morphs from ‘That’s All for Now,’ a song made up on the spot, into ‘Blue Suede Shoes.’ A Maguffin Production, Paul McCartney: Chaos and Creation at Abbey Road is directed by Simon Hilton and produced by James Chadd. It was recorded live at Abbey Road Studios, London, July 28, 2005.

Last updated on October 13, 2020

Abbey Road Studios, Studio 2

This was the 1st and only concert played at Abbey Road Studios, Studio 2.

Setlist for the concert

8.

Heartbreak Hotel

Written by Elvis Presley, Mae Boren Axton, Thomas Durden